The trends of funeral practices are showing a growing acceptance of cremation. In the United States, approximately 26% of deaths are disposed through cremation (Cremationist-Vol. 38, No. 2, 2002). The Peoples Republic of China cremates approximately 46% of its deaths, whereas Sweden and Switzerland cremate approximately 70% of its deaths.
In the United States, many cremationists and funeral home professionals have observed regional variation in cremation rates. For example, about half the families on the West Coast choose cremation. Of these, approximately half have the cremated remains returned to them for scattering or other forms of personal disposition. Those not wishing to be buried in traditional cemeteries often select scattering of the deceased cremains.
With scattering, the direct or immediate family may be present, but not the friends or others to share the grieving process. Often those who scattered the cremated remains later regret not having a ceremony that often accompanies a funeral or a fixed location to return for extended mourning or periodic reflection to include future generations.
Some cemeteries have developed “scattering” gardens, and have moderate acceptance by the public but distasteful to others. A few cemeteries have developed urn paths, where rocks or boulders are marked with small individual markers or monuments, but mapping is difficult, and aesthetics degrades with the haphazard placements of urn gardens and wall-based Niche columbariums.
Traditionally, cemeteries use graves and crypts in mausoleums for burial or entombment, and niches in columbariums or graves in urn gardens for cremated remains. The grave spaces of burial or cremation are generally marked with a bronze or granite marker or headstone mounted on a cement base. In the case of an urn garden, there is typically row upon row of small markers that look very unnatural. Niches in columbariums or walls look more attractive, but are costly.
Interring cremation remains over conventional whole-body burials in caskets is attractive to cemetery owners, mostly due to decreasing space available for future burials. Though urns take up less space then coffins, they are stored in relatively high-volume boxes known as niches, each niche usually a member of a group of niches built into a wall. Though efficient, in that the reduced size of storing cremation urns in niches allows more burials per cemetery than larger volume coffins and crypts, traditional niches cannot easily adapt to landscapes having a varied terrain. Many cemeteries have fixed landscapes and dedicated areas for urn gardens and conventional gravesites and are limited primarily to this readily usable land. After all the readily useable lands are used, only sloped landscapes and grounds prone to water saturation remain. Often ground near ponds and rivers, having high underground water levels, and hilly areas, cannot be used.
As cemeteries reach capacity, only sloped terrains, narrow areas between established pathways, areas adjacent to existing closely-packed structures, and areas prone to seasonal or permanent high-water levels cannot be used for underground inurnments. Sloped terrains present practical burial problems to keep inumments stabilized and into position. Similarly, existing columbaria in urn gardens cannot be interred underground in water soaked areas because conventional underground niches are built impervious to water and serve to float out or be expelled from the ground as the water level rises. Moreover, single inurnment systems take up too much space and cannot as readily be positioned in tight spaces remaining between buildings, pathways, and landscaped trees and bushes.
A disadvantage to cremation is the obliteration of DNA sources of the diseased, forever losing genetic based information for future studies. Often, for reasons of forensics, genealogy, or epidemiology, analysis of post-interred remains is desired or required. Additionally, a source of DNA from the deceased with the cremated remains would also serve as a relic for visitation by the bereaved survivors.
It is desirable therefore to have a storage system for storing a large number of cremated remains in a space efficient manner. Furthermore, it is desirable to have a storage system that will efficiently utilize the limited supply of cemetery land.